Update: May 2011

Influential playwright and activist Doric Wilson - an honorary IT Award recipient - passed away this month at the age of 72.

Born
in Washington State, Wilson began writing plays as a high school
student. In 1959, he moved to New York City as an actor. In 1961,
though, he hit a career milestone as one of the first resident
playwrights at Caffe Cino, with such plays as And He Made A Her, Babel Babel Little Tower, Now She Dances!, and Pretty People. His work helped establish Caffe Cino as a hub in the burgeoning Off-Off-Broadway movement, and Dances!
was the first Off-Off play to portray gay people in a positive light.
Later, Wilson also became a founding member of Circle Repertory Company.

Safe Home, Lanford Wilson

by Shay Gines

On
Monday, May 16, 2011, friends and colleagues gathered on an overcast
afternoon at the Lyceum Theater to celebrate the life of Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson.

Wilson is considered to
be one of the founders of the Off-Off-Broadway movement. He began his
career at the Caffe Cino where his plays Ludlow Fair, Home Free!, and The Madness of Lady Bright
were presented. It is at the Cino that Wilson met and began work with
his life-long collaborator, director Marshall Mason. Together they
forged a 40-year partnership that resulted in some of the most heartfelt
and celebrated plays of their generation.

Don't Wear All the Hats All at OnceIf
Kampfire were to create a survey to find out why artists multitask the
way they do, we are pretty sure the results would show the biggest
reason is money. When most of an OOB budget is allocated to rehearsal
and performance space, it is hard to bring on all of collaborators we
need and we end up wearing more hats than a congregation at a Baptist
church on Sunday.

Take marketing and PR for example; how
important is it to hire a representative instead of doing it yourself?
Sure there are the obvious factors, if we aren't experts in the field
and especially if we don't have the contacts, a marketer or press rep is
a must - but what if we possess the ability to do both things?

Recently
my colleague Antonio had to step up at the last minute and direct a
pretty challenging show for which he was originally on board as marketer
and PR rep. Could he manage all three? Yes, and he is very capable
doing all of these aspects. But could he give each area the focus that
it required? Could he maintain perspective of the project? Big No.

Thankfully,
they succeeded with the help of a marketing committee and a publicist,
but for a second he was going to wear all the hats all at once.
Fortunately he saw the perils of being an island in an art where
collaboration is key.

Update on Brooklyn Town Hall Property Tax Relief Initiative On
Monday, May 9th, a town hall was held to inform and engage Brooklyn
based non-profit performing arts organizations in the discussion about
the tax relief initiative. The arts support and advocacy organizations
gave an update on how the tax relief initiative is progressing, next
steps, and opportunities for direct theater community involvement. A
spirited question-and-answer session followed, including encouraging
remarks from New York City Councilmember Stephen Levin who sits on the
Council's Land Use committee and represents the neighborhood in which
the meeting was held. Read More.

OOB Audience SurveyThe
Innovative Theatre Foundation is conducting the fourth part of our OOB
research project. This study focuses on OOB Audiences. If you are an OOB
Audience member, please take the survey today. If you have a production that will be performing in the next few months, we could use your help. Please email us at info@nyitawards.com.

Theatre World v67For
the last 67 years, Theatre World has been documenting Broadway and
Off-Broadway productions and has become the leading archivist of
information for American Theatre. (There is more information about
Theatre World at the end of this email.) In 2009 they began to include
Off-Off-Broadway. Find out more....

NEA releases study on the value of the arts The
National Endowment for the Arts has released a new report titled "Time
and Money: Using Federal Data to Measure the Value of Performing Arts
Activities," which measures the value of the arts in three ways: time
spent on arts activities; organizational revenue and expenses; and
direct consumer spending. Check out the full report.

For
details about these and other important activities affecting OOB and to
see how you can help and get involved, check out the Community Corner.

You can keep up with us on Blogspot, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace & YouTube.

SPOTLIGHT ON

Philip Rothman

by Christopher Borg

Deirdre MacNamara and Jake Lipman in Tongue in Cheeks' production of Proof.

What
does an Off-Off-Broadway sound designer do in his off-time? Oh, just
compose for symphony orchestras and HBO. Slumming it much?

Nationally
recognized composer Philip Rothman was nominated in 2010 for
Outstanding Sound Design for his work on Tongue In Cheek Production's Proof. More recently, you can hear his orchestrations in the motion picture The Beaver, in theaters right now, and also the upcoming Too Big to Fail which premieres on HBO May 23rd.

Rothman's
compositions have been performed by the North Carolina Symphony, the
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra, and the United
States Military Academy Band among others. His music has been heard at
major venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as well as
broadcast on more than 200 radio stations in America. Recent works
include orchestrations for feature films such as The Nanny Diaries, Hollywoodland (Focus Features), and You Don't Know Jack
(HBO Films). Rothman received a Bachelor of Music degree from Rice
University and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. He
has earned numerous awards and honors throughout his career including
four ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the Brian M.
Israel Prize, a fellowship from the League of American Orchestras, and
various grants from the American Music Center. Rothman currently serves
as program advisor to the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

Rothman
is currently working on a new orchestral commission for the Eastern
Music Festival in North Carolina, to premiere on July 23. In celebration
of its 50th Anniversary, the Eastern Music Festival & School (EMF)
has commissioned five new world premieres from Rothman as well as
composers Pierre Jalbert, Peter Boyer, Michael Hersch, and Vivian Fung,
all of whom will be in attendance for their premieres. This marks the
first time that Eastern Music Festival will have five world premieres in
one season, each of which will be performed in July during the 2011
Season.

While
Rothman's work is celebrated across the country, his natural modesty
came out last year. When he received his nomination, he described
creating music and sound design for Proof
as "a joy" and was quoted as saying "I'm so delighted to be nominated
for this award; I share it with the enormously talented cast and crew,
who incorporated my work seamlessly into the show." Now that's a class
act.

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